Four Liverpool players named in World’s Top 100 most valuable – Emre Can at €45.8m

Yet again, Lionel Messi comes out on top, with his Barcelona team-mate Neymar close on his heels.

Despite an awful season, Eden Hazard is rated ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo who comes in at 4th.

CIES calculate players’ values on a number of benchmarks. They claim:

The criteria taken into account refer to both the performance and personal characteristics of players (age, position, contract duration, etc.), as well as to the competition level and results of their employer club and national team represented (if any).

Last year, six Reds made the cut – including Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling. You can check out that list here.

Coutinho, according to this, is the 13th most valuable player in the world – and would cost a prospective buyer €73m.

Emre Can comes in next for Liverpool in 35th at a cool €45.8m, with two summer signings also included. Roberto Firmino is rated 46th at €40.8m and Christian Benteke is 83rd at €32m – slightly less than less than we paid for him just six months back.

We reckon that Emre Can and Coutinho are rated so expensive due to their lengthy contracts, the fact Liverpool traditionally charge huge money for our best players (Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres, Raheem Sterling), and because they’re both very young – which increases potential transfer fees as well.

Firmino and Benteke have not shone since their marquee arrivals, but because they’ll be on long-term contracts – their sell-on value is still very high.

Elsewhere on the list, there’s some surprising figures calculated by the CIES algorithm. Edinson Cavani at €34.8m comes in less than Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son for instance and even Manchester United’s Daley Blind! (Once a player closes on his 30s, his value dramatically drops, of course.)

Check out the full list here, Reds. Should any of our other players have been included?